The Rand West City Local Municipality (RWCLM) spearheaded a mass clean-up campaign at Riebeeck Lake to mark the 2021 World Environmental Day on June 15.
The theme ‘Restoration of the ecosystem’ – a rallying call from the United Nations for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world – was adopted by Rand Water, the Waste Department, Community Work Programme (CWP), Parks Department, and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) all of which partnered with RWCLM on the day.
Environmental officer at the RWCLM, Gladys Mahlangu explained that Riebeeck Lake was chosen after receiving numerous complaints about pollution. She said a company responsible for the pollution is facing legal action for the offence.
“We’ve also discovered that people were cutting the trees there illegally, which led to others thinking that the area was a dumping site – which it is not! It’s close to a school, and all the items discarded there end up in drinking water sources, endangering many lives,” Mahlangu warned.
She said part of the project was to cut and remove dead trees, clean the lake and put up the no-dumping sign that also warns culprits of prosecution if caught dumping.
“When you discard anything that’s not organic it will not decompose. A plastic bag, for instance, won’t degrade. You then find that animals that rely on the source downstream suffer,” Mahlangu said.
She added that polluting waters may cause water-borne diseases to many who rely on that water source, and organisms such as fish and aquatic plants become vulnerable.
“We’ve decided to take care of the problem because if we simply ignore it, it will grow bigger and bigger and continue killing our ecosystem.
“We need to preserve our environments because the implications are far more than we realise. We keeping seeing huge changes in the ecosystem and continue putting our planet in danger. We need to preserve the planet for the future generation. We can start by stopping illegal dumping,” Mahlangu pleaded.
